GABAI's main laboratory is located at the Department of Chemical Sciences of the Faculty of Pharmacy of University of Porto. Other laboratories are located at the Department of Chemistry of the Faculty of Sciences of University of Porto, at Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar of University of Porto and at the Faculty of Health Sciences of Fernando Pessoa University. GABAI is a research group part of REQUIMTE - Associated Laboratory for the Green Chemistry.

GABAI's activity is focused on the Clean Production Technologies and Processes and Environmental Control and (Bio)Remediation.
These are two of REQUIMTE's activity research areas.

Clean Production Technologies and Processes
(REQUIMTE's research line 3)

• Food authenticity and food safety control, namely nutritional analysis, checking of labeling information and comparative study of food products of the same group available in the market. Different analytical methodologies are employed as well as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
• Development of methodologies to be used in various food matrices using finger-printing techniques and of standard recognition methods such as artificial neuronal nets.
• Food safety - Several parameters are evaluated in different foods, with particular emphasis for the determination of heterocyclic amines, aromatic policyclichydrocarbons, biogenic amines, aflatoxins, L/D amino-acids, trans isomers of unsaturated fatty acids and additives (preservers and anti-oxidants).
• Screening of drug residues and respective metabolites in foods from animal origin, especially anti-stress agents and antibiotics.
• Quantification and speciation of toxic metals in food matrices. Analysis of microorganisms in foods, potentially pathogenic for humans.

Environmental Control and (Bio)Remediation
(REQUIMTE's research line 4)

• Development of new separation processes for the recovery of reaction products and biomolecules in a cleaner and more economic way from the energetic point of view. In particular, in the study of processes with supercritical fluids, separation processes with membranes and adsorption processes using modified natural materials.
• Development of new types of (bio)reactors integrating the (bio)reaction with the separation and purification of the resulting products.
• Development of new process monitoring techniques, allowing its on-line implementation in a non-invasive way and with acquisition in real time.
• Development of reliable systems for processes automation and control.

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